Tag: Board Repair

After hitting a few logs while sailing and frustrated with blowing through the bottom of slot boxes, and the lack of unavailability, I decided to upgrade my Starboard Kode Wave Twin board to US boxes.

This repair took me way to long, mostly because of the colder winter than usual and not wanting to keep my shop heated on the cold days. Here’s the basics of what I did, I’m by no means a pro, but I’ve repaired a few boards for myself, and at windsurfing centers as an instructor.

Board damage happens, it’s part of windsurfing, someone once told me “if you aren’t pushing yourself far enough to fall you aren’t pushing yourself far enough to improve”, unless you’ve seen a shark! This particular crack on my AHD concept wave happened while getting crunched by a wave set on the mast.

I’ve become quite handy at repairs. Years of teaching windsurfing at resorts and schools, plus my own gear which I would often find damaged from travel and abuse have given me lots of experience. However I feel most windsurfers can do a basic repair on there own, if you’re not comfortable oo looking for perfection take it to a pro!

Here a brief over view of the repair steps.

Sand and prep the area

Sand the area along the cracks, be sure to sand to the end of the cracks

Find soft spots and drill holes just through the damaged foam

this is done to prevent delamination by allowing filler compound into the board

sand holes again

clean all epoxy and loose material from area and holes

Cover area with filler coat

Mix Epoxy and add micro ballons until the epoxy has a stiff texture

Apply mixed epoxy to board with rubber squeegee, be sure to fill all the holes

be sure the filler is above the curve of the board

Sand Filler coat

Once the filler coat has dried sand it smooth, 80 grit sandpaper should do the trick quickly

Sanding is important here, as any defects will be visible through the glass and paint

Glass the area

Glass the area with 8oz fiberglass cloth

I find it best to gently pull the epoxy out from the center of the glass towards the edge

Allow epoxy to dry

sand and feather the edge of the repair to blend

Hot Coat – mix a small amount of epoxy, use a foam brush to apply a coat of epoxy over the repair

Sand the hot coat

Paint

Clean the area with a bit of denatured alcohol (this removes any wax and grease)

Use automotive spray paint matching the color as closely as possible

I sanded the gray to take a bit of the gloss off

Re-deck

a bit of touch of graphics for the black and white, plus some re-deck and the job is done!